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fun fact if you take away all of his career goals, he is still the all time NHL leader in points. he has more assists than people have combined goals and assists. crazy

What makes it even more amazing is that his lead is 970 points, which is considered a very good career for a player. Nick Lidstrom, a sure-fire Hall of Fame defenseman, has 997 career points. Gretzky's record is untouchable.

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Cael Sanderson and John Smith are bigger of American wrestlers. I think Cael and Gable sort of fall into the same boat, they could have had better international success if they didnt stop there career after 1 gold medal.

but when it comes to international wrestling no one comes close to

Aleksander Karelin

He is arguably the best pure athlete ever, including some NFL stars of today. His records are possibly the greatest in all sports as well.

He was undefeated for 12 years in wrestling, and didnt have a point scored on him for 8 or 9 years as well

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IDK, cause I think Wilt Chamberlain should be right up there for that title. He was just in a league of his own when he was playing. Only player with 4,000 pts in a season, most points in a game, most rebounds in a game, most consecutive shots made in a game. He freaking averaged 50.4 pts in a season. For his career, he averaged 30.1 ppg and 22.9 rpg. He caused rules to be changed.

In regards to your statement, I just don't think it is so clear cut.

Originally posted by bearsfan_51

Show me your Wang, if you will.

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Not even the best rugby player of his generation in my opinion. For players that i've seen plenty of i'd take an, in his prime Brian O'Driscoll over him anyday. Then there's the legend that is Gareth Edwards, slightly before our time but.

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Any love for Steve Prefontaine? Short career, yes, with no Olympic medals either but he was definitely a star. First real Nike athlete (I think), a contributing reason for Americans starting to jog again, SI cover (rare for a distance runner) and continues to inspire athletes today.

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If we're talking in terms of fame then it's easy. Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, and Tiger Woods take the cake. I know those answers sound American, but it seems that people all over know those guys. You'd have to be in some kind of hibernation to not be aware of them.

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Cael Sanderson and John Smith are bigger of American wrestlers. I think Cael and Gable sort of fall into the same boat, they could have had better international success if they didnt stop there career after 1 gold medal.

but when it comes to international wrestling no one comes close to

Aleksander Karelin

He is arguably the best pure athlete ever, including some NFL stars of today. His records are possibly the greatest in all sports as well.

He was undefeated for 12 years in wrestling, and didnt have a point scored on him for 8 or 9 years as well

Sanderson has such a humongous feat by going undefeated, and Karelin always baffles me when I hear about his streak. I don't know much about wrestling, but anyone can tell that what he did was unhuman. I think he was something the Soviets cooked up in a lab. haha

"If you have one finger pointing at somebody, you have three pointing towards yourself."
~Nigerian Proverb

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This is a great topic, there are a couple of ways to look at it though.

Do you look at it from within the sport and thus make it into a "greatest player" topic or do you look at who is bigger than the sport, so those guys that people know the sport because of.

I'm going to go with something along the lines of the 2nd option and show it from my sheltered view over here in Australia and name the guys that are "bigger than their sports"

1. Michael Jordan - Had kids who didn't even like basketball wanting to "Be like Mike".
2. David Beckham - Put it this way, his wife is the only spice girl still talked about and she is only talked about because she is his wife.
3. Muhammed Ali - People who weren't alive when he boxed know he boxed. May actually be the biggest on this list.
4. Mike Tyson - Is a close 2nd to Ali, when people think of boxing he is 1b to Ali.
5. Tiger Woods - Everyone knows who he is.
6. John McEnroe - Is quiet comfortably the biggest tennis star. Aggassi is a very distant 2nd.
7. Sachin Tendulkar - Biggest star in world cricket. Bradman was the best, Lara was better, but Sachin is the biggest.
8. Diego Maradona/Pele - Can't really seperate the two best players ever, Maradona is probably more famous or more well known, but everyone knows who Pele is also.
9. Yao Ming - Is by far the biggest star currently in the NBA, although may be better known as that huge chinese dude.
10. Anna Kournikova - By far the biggest female athlete in the world and probably actually tennis' 2nd or 3rd biggest star.

That would be my top 10 I think. Rather fluid in that the top 5 could be put in any order but I certainly feel a drop off after them. Just to let it known, Babe Ruth would be baseball, Dan Marino would be NFL and the Mighty Ducks would be Hockey, if I twisted arms until I found someone who knew Hockey would probably be a Gretzky but would take some searching.

I would think Carl Lewis takes the boat for olympics. Michael Schumacher and Nigel Mansell also deserve mentions if you consider motor sports to be sports as such.